They're quite lucky though that Magisk addition turned out so great, even more, he's probably their best and most skilled player in the end.
Every player on the team can switch to beast mode and carry, every other team has at least one shit or inconsistent player.
Plus it seems like they are the only highly smart team on the scene, other skilled teams rely only on frags to come

Maybe so, but the majority of the top tier has won more big events than they have. The only big result they have is Dreamhack Malmö, where advantages were had with a solid fan-backing since it was on home soil.

Fnatic got a new roster and have made it to at least semi final in EVERY tournament since. They got 3 major wins. They made it to 3 finals in just these months they are this current roster. They are one of the most consistent teams there is.
Other teams like navi loosing to tier 3 teams back to back.

no lie supporting as a role is old meta look they need someone who can frag and still throw flashes and smokes floppy can do that or even motm , Voltage is also coming out of tier 2 more and showing his skills

Not this lineup. Since Golden and flusha rejoined, they've finished no worse than 3rd-4th in every event the full lineup was in, including EPL Europe where they've clinched a top 2 finish.
Note: Excluding Blast events, since Fnatic doesn't participate in those, Astralis has managed the same feat since ESL One Cologne 2019. No other team has been anywhere near this level of consistent success in either timeframe.

I'm not doubting that they are a top team by any means, I wouldn't even say that their results are inconsistent, but their play is.
It's impressive that they manage to grind out the results they've had in the past months, but take a look at how close their games are against teams that are much lower in the rankings and how poor they play in some of those key rounds.
I guess it's an achievement in itself now that I think about it, a lot can be credited to Golden who makes the right calls in the end.
I've been watching a lot of their games, while JW in particular has made my eyes bleed with poor decision-making. Krimz has saved them on numerous occasions with insane performances then completely dip into obscurity afterwards. It's a weird fucking team.

Mouz has been the most consistent team for the past half year, which is also why they were ranked #2 the the majority of it.
This includes a 3-0 stomping against fnatic at the ESL Pro League grand final in December.

fnatic had a few adjustment periods went from being cocky all stars with olof - to not being able to win individual fights.
you can see over time how their style has changed, and they struggled finding the right chemistry once brollan joined they became a dangerous team.
the addition of golden after his cloud9 stint seemed to reignite life back into the team, the addition of flusha coming back they've found consistency and good form they've stayed relevant to the top 5 since.

well, in this case he was still a kid (16 yo), Liquid was decent, but still a team of hard chokers, s1mple wasn't mature enough, so he decided to went back to his mommy
Why unlucky? Cause CIS orgs have lack of professionalism, resources (Na'Vi has tho), smart players, which is really important (that's why no good igl and coach with decent tactics)

Not really sure that even with s1mple in beast more they could win it, it had to be everyone on point
we saw it plenty of times before, s1mple get 40 frags, but Na'Vi loose cause 2 other bots just can't hold the site and what can you do? probably only get exits and be blamed for statpadding

and insane skill. astralis skill in 2018-2019 was overall better than even fnatic in 2015. ofc it was alot of strats and teamwork aswell. but i mean nowadays, the astralis players are clearly much better individual players than the fnatic guys.

how are they WAY MORE successful? astralis players have 24 events won and fnatic have 22 events. astralis 4 majors and fnatic 3 majors (or 2 if you dont want to count dh winter 2014). i cant see how thats WAY MORE successful. i will agree that astralis are the best team of all time in csgo and more successful than fnatic but its not THAT BIG of a gap.

well fnatic would have had an IGS in 2015 if that existed back then so... and 4 majors is better than 3 yes, but is that WAAAAAAAAY MORE successful? imo the majors fnatic won were harder to win than some of the ones astralis won. astralis got a bit lucky with the draw at the last 2 majors. sure its not their fault but not as impressive as cologne 2015, katowice 2015 and even dhw 2013 when fnatic were underdogs.

rofl keep displaying your total lack of knowledge and understanding of the scene.
Astralis is GOAT because of strats, teamwork, comms and very well suited roles.
Not because they are 5 stronger individuals.
Gtfo and let the adults discuss this pls.

When you take roles into consideration, I think Dupreeh is a bit of a weak link.
Last year, his stats were basically the same as Xyp9x's even though one is a support player and the other is supposed to be the second star of the team. This year, his stats look worse than Xyp9x.
Role for role, he's also the most replaceable by far. Give Valde or BlameF his role and it would be an immediate upgrade. Give these two players the role of anyone else on the team though and I think they would struggle and would likely be a downgrade.
In terms of his personality, Dupreeh is also the only one on the team who seems to rage and get tilted, which is a negative quality to have on a team that thrives on staying calm and composed even after losing a map.

As far as weak links go, he's definitely not that bad.
When I look at almost every other "great" team in CS history, their weakest link has been much worse.
Still, it's scary to imagine how much better Astralis could potentially be if they swapped out Dupreeh for Valde or BlameF.

Dupreeh hasn't been a traditional entry fragger for years, because Astralis have moved away from that simplistic way of playing.
The whole team shares the responsibility of opening up bombsites, but if they rely on anyone the most to get the opening kill, it's usually an AWP kill from dev1ce because that's the smartest way to do it.
If you look at how Dupreeh plays, it's clear he has a lot more freedom to do what he wants than Magisk (who holds very specific and passive positions) and Xyp9x (who tries to survive late into rounds) which basically makes him the 2nd star of the team and the one who should be fragging the most after Dev1ce.

Astralis did have a upper hand when it came to competition. The only competition Astralis had in its era was Liquid (Don't bring EG) . That's it. They did destroy teams but most of them had already started rebuilding. 2020 has teams almost rebuilt. G2,Fnatic,Navi and Mouz are ready and you will see Astralis not able to dominate anymore. Look at the major finals, ence and avangar. Two fluke run teams. This major Astralis might not even reach semis.

You may have to add Zonic to the equation as well as Casper Hvidt: Former goal keeper of the Danish national team in handball as well as the entire organisation behind the 5 superheroes.
Only Liquid was at least up there.
There is a lot of "thinking" involved behind this successful concept.

Funny that I actually thought Na'Vi started to play as a unit and ready to take it to the next level. Then I saw Boomich running with the bomb after they took the site instead of planting -> causing free round for FaZe.. and it's like one example out of 1000, every time I wonder how can you make these silly mistakes on that level

Well yeah, I just mean that individually they indeed can sometimes look like the best team in the world, but then again if their key players have an off day I swear any team out of top30 can beat them xD
that's what you call lack of depth in their approach, ohh well :)

We all have off days.
Astralis - so to speak - "taught" everyone how to play during 2018 with utility usage etc. After ANY coach or player being serious about their own career studied Astralis for hours and hours, everyone caught up!
It seems that anybody in top #30 can beat everybody nowadays.
The core of Astralis has been together for 6 years (Mag1sk "only" two years by now) which is obviously an advantage in the long run, though Astralis do have off days/down periods just like everybody else.
On top they have managed to deal with internal issues which inevitably occur along the road on a psychological level.
That's the REAL strength behind this team.
You see honeymoon periods amongst other teams, but they all seem to go for roster changes whenever things begin to go wrong.
I REALLY hope the NaVi roster will stay together: I expect a LOT from them in 2020!

Sure!
But Astralis held a stat like +100 ADR by utility usage alone for months.
When the players are low on health before they even SEE their opponents they are of course vulnerable to smaller or less deadly weapons.
No rocket science here, but Astralis were the first to incooperate this systematically.
You can rewatch a few of their games from 2018, i.e. Marseille or London: We will never see winstreaks like the ones Astralis had on Nuke and Inferno ever again.
(the semifinal against Fnatic, IEM Chicago 2018, round 30 on Inferno, is/was epic!)

I agree with you.
Since NAVI replaced Zeus and Edward I have predicted they would win something big in 2020.
They got Katowice, but I thought they would even be in for a Major, when the new players settled.
Instead it looks like Flamie and Boom are getting worse, making more mistakes.
I think NAVI needs a stronger and more professional coach + management to be more consistent. The players have the skills and Boom has the brains. I think even Simple could improve, if Boom + a good coach got a dynamic like Zonic & Glaive. In many maps Simple starts of incredibly well, and then slows down. I think a strong Igl+Coach could get more from him in those cases.
They can still win a Major, maybe 3rd favorite to take one this year.

dupreeh is starting to play a bit shit recently and sometimes Xyp hasn't been in decent form. dev1ce magisk and gla1ve though are still at the top of their games (gla1ve faltering a bit but overall pretty good)

You could tell magisk had a lot of potential before he joined, he had games for north where he'd carry very hard but he was just to inconsistent. Astralis really brough the best out of him and thats the impressive thing about their org

not really, device is the best player on astralis, he has more potential than anyone on that team. yeah, magisk is nutty af, but hes not better. s1mple also had an off-period where elec was a bit better, but s1mple is still by far the best player on navi. a short period doesnt change anything.

I see your point, it is indeed a good comparison. I'm wondering if device gonna step up now after this ESL showing and fight for the best player of 2020 year. I know for him it doesn't matter, but still.